Frege's Detour

John Perry offers a rethinking of Gottlob Frege's seminal contributions to philosophy of language. Frege's innovations provided the basis of modern logic, but his influence in other areas should not be understated. For instance, the view that he developed in "On Sense and Reference", the most studied essay in the philosophy of language, dominated twentieth-century work in the field and continues to be very influential. Perry explains and charts the development of Frege's views in this area, and argues that his doctrine of indirect reference directed philosophy of language on a long detour from which only now can we emerge. Perry advocates a move away from indirect reference and presents an alternative framework which does not require the abandoning of circumstances in the references of sentences.

John Perry is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at Stanford University and at the University of California, Riverside. He received his BA from Doane College in 1964 and his PhD from Cornell University in 1968. Perry was the founder- and for many years the co-host-of the nationally syndicated radio show Philosophy Talk. He is also the co-author of the market-leading Introduction to Philosophy, now in its ninth edition. Perry taught at UCLA from 1968 to 1974, before joining Stanford University. He worked at Stanford until his retirement in 2008, and subsequently taught part time at the University of California, Riverside until 2013.

- Preface - 1: Introduction - 2: Frege's Begriffsschrift: Accomplishments - 3: Frege's Begriffsschrift: Problems - 4: Sense and denotation: The Theory - 5: "On Sense and Denotation" - 6: Solving the Identity Problems - 7: Disarming the Slingshot - 8: Integrating Frege's Theories - 9: Episodes and Attitudes - 10: Conclusion - List of examples